I’d not presume that Bret Baier of FoxNews reads our blog. But since he’s asked for our input, here are the first three questions I’d pose to President Obama if it were me interviewing him today:
1) Mr. President, you’ve continued to say, even up to this week, that your plan will not affect Medicare negatively. In fact, in Ohio the other day, you criticized those who question you plan by calling them out: [start sound-bite]
You know, the most insidious argument they’re making is the idea that somehow this would hurt Medicare.
Now, that seems a pretty stern characterization of your detractors, to call their tactics “insidious”. Are you willing now, here today, to classify the Congressional Budget Office as “insidious”, considering they have called into question the use of double-counding of quote-unquote savings from Medicare for the purposes of shoring up its own solvency while at the same time using those savings to offset the costs of your overall plan?
2) Mr. President, as a former Constitutional law professor, you were highly-lauded as someone who, quote, “stood apart in too many ways to count.” You were praised by former students and wept upon by the press for your excellent manner of presentation. Could you, now, in terms that all those who watch FoxNews—and clearly could never therefore be nearly as erudite in the ways of the world, let alone the US Constitution as someone like yourself—can understand how it is that the process, from the bill’s passage in the House last fall, through a different bill’s passage through the Senate on Christmas Eve, through reconciliation and the so-called “Slaughter” rule, works? And how this is in keeping with our form of Constitutional and representative government?
3) Finally, Mr. President, you’re also a student of American history, and indeed, now part of it (Haven’t been able to sit down with you since your election, for some reason, by the way, Congratulations on that!) Similar to my last question, and with the understanding that we’re about to make history here in the United States, can you give an example of when, in our Nation’s history, such a broad new entitlement program—which will reorder over one-sixth of the Nation’s economy—was passed without any support from the minority party, an overwhelming majority (greater than the majority that so historically elected you a year and a half ago, for what it’s worth) of the electorate opposed to it, with only the slimmest of margins in the Congress to pass it, through the scheme of reconciliation in the Senate and/or the Slaughter manuveur in the House?
-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)
Well Nick, clearly you are never going to get a job on TV. Try to make your questions into sentences instead of paragraphs. Thats a good way to make sure your viewers remain awake long enough to hear the answers.
Why Tano, if the American people were awake, you’d not be able to insult their intelligence.
I’ve another one Nick. Given your lack of support of our allies such as England, Poland, Georgia, and Israel, your support of the legally impeached and removed president of Honduras, your lack of support of Democratic protestors in Iran, and your Justice Deparment dismissal of the convictions of an organization involved in voter intimidation in your own country… why do you hate free people?
Great Questions to not get answered if for no other reason then the people typing into the teleprompter would need to remember how it started.
I have confidence in the reporters ability to ask the right questions of Mr. Obama. Just as I will probably enjoy watching the song and dance number that Mr. Obama will do provided my head doesn’t explode.
Mr. president, how do you reconcile being POTUS while at the same time not giving a dirty f*ck about the American people?
By choosing Fox News for this interview, the Administration is positioning itself to condemn the network as a biased, right-wing propaganda machine if Obama gets cornered, taken down, or otherwise blows the interview. I hope Baier has the skill and tenacity to maintain control of the interview and respectfully call Obama out when he tries to pull the usual crap–for example, I expect Obama to respond to Baier’s questions by attacking the questions themselves. If Baier asks about abortion funding, cuts to Medicare benefits, or coverage of illegal aliens, Obama will respond by stating, “Now, Bret, this is what I don’t understand. Why is Fox News participating in spreading misinformation and lies about what is in the healthcare reform package and scaring the American people…, blah, blah, blah…” I just hope Baier is prepared for that weasel to try to pin all of the horrific things in the healthcare “reform” bill on right-wing misinformation rather than what is actually in the legislation itself. (This could be a career-making interview for Baier if he knocks it out of the park.)
Of course it would just give the Administration more ammo to claim that Fox News is biased and unfair, but I would still like to see Baier remind the President that in October of last year, both Axelrod and Emanuel stated that Fox News is not a legitimate news organization (with Emanuel specifically stating that the President shares this view), and then ask if Obama still holds that opinion, and if so, why did he choose Fox News to interview him in the midst of such a critical, game-changing moment of his Presidency.
P.S. Yep, the White House is saying that it chose Fox News for the interview because it is the “scene of the crime” where the “falsehoods and myths” about Obamacare gained traction. I hadn’t seen this when I posted my earlier comment:
“President Obama sits down at the White House this afternoon with Bret Baier, anchor of Fox News’ “Special Report” and former chief White House correspondent. A White House official: “Many of the falsehoods and myths about health reform gained traction with Glenn Beck and others on FOX, so the President is returning to the scene of the crime to make the final sale. As we have said, we will work with Fox where it serves our communications interests, and this does.” The interview is sure to have a huge echo effect because of past White House criticism of Fox, and is a creative way to break through the health care white noise. Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer offered the interview to Baier on Monday.”
http://www.politico.com/playbook/0310/playbook989.html
Sean-
Hmmm. I was going to specifically NOT watch Special Report tonight because I didn’t want to have to hear the Ass-In-Chief.
But you make a great point about Bret Baier’s role in this debate.
No other network reporter or anchor has EVER asked Obama ONE tough question since the DNC 2004 speech.
So, I’m going to watch now simply to see how Bret handles the interview.
early word is the President stumbled and mumbled his way thru his Q and A with Bret and independent Fox News.
Ummm yaoh yaooh well umm yaoh
NEXT!
Bruce,
I have never watched any of Obama’s other “event” speeches or interviews because they have always been on the useless “big” network stations (who could forget the ABC-produced Obama Infomercial or NBC tool Brian Williams asking Obama hard-hitting questions during the campaign about what he was FEELING as he embarked on his “extraordinary, historic journey” to the Democratic nomination?) I even thought Bill O’Reilly was too deferential when he got a shot at interviewing Obama, but that was during the campaign when it was still easy for him to get away with lofty generalities and platitudes about what he would do as President.
But with this interview, we’ve had over a year of experiencing the nightmare of this Presidency and this Congress, AND there is legislation on the table that Obama has been pitching as the answer to America’s healthcare prayers. So, I just hope Baier goes into the interview knowing the aspects of the various bills backwards and forwards because Obama has made is very clear that he has no compulsion about telling bold-faced lies about what’s in the bills (depending on who is asking the question). And why would he be concerned about getting caught lying about these 2000+ page monstrosities? He’s never been held accountable for lying by the MSM. So, when he’s asked about federal funding for ABORTIONS by a perceived adversary, he says it’s NOT in the bill. When he’s asked about funding for WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH by some femi-nazi group, it IS in the bill. Honesty, accuracy, integrity–they mean nothing to this man. The only thing he cares about is being PERCEIVED as honest, accurate, informed and of good character.
So, if Obama tries to use this interview to make Fox News the enemy and pretend that all of the negative aspects of the bill are just lies and misinformation drummed up by Glenn Beck’s “followers”, I want Baier to call his lying ass on the carpet and be prepared to back it up with what is actually IN THE BILLS. Of course, at that idiotic “summit” the MSM let Obama get away with avoiding tough questions with that horsesh*t, “I don’t want us to get bogged down here…” I hope Baier has the stones and the smarts to make it clear to the President that if he is planning to sign one of these bills, he’d better know what the fu*k is in them and be prepared to defend them. For the MSM, the story has ALWAYS been the “right-wing attacks” on the President and healthcare. In this interview, the story needs to be the legislation.
I first noticed Baier reporting from the White House, but I think Fox has been grooming him for some time for possibly going all the way to a Brit Hume-type career, but he just doesn’t have that spark of charisma that others have. Hopefully, what he lacks in charisma, he has in preparedness and intelligence. If he takes Obama down today, I think it will be a big deal for his career.